Lenin CW-Vol. 23.pdf - From Marx to Mao

OPEN LETTER TO CHARLES NAINE227Now, after January 7, 1917, Grimm’s “tactics” have beenfully exposed.He wants to be regarded as leader of the Left, as chairmanof the International Socialist Committee, representativeand leader of the Zimmerwaldists. He is trying todeceive the workers with the most “r-r-revolutionary” phrases,using them, in reality, to conceal the party’s old, socialpatriot,bourgeois-reformist practice.He vows and swears that he sympathises with Karl Liebknecht,Höglund, etc., that he is their supporter, that heis pursuing their policy.But Karl Liebknecht in Germany, Höglund in small neutralSweden, fought not against foreign, but against their ownsocial-patriots. They attacked the reformists and nationalistsat home, in Berlin, in Stockholm, not in other countries.Their ruthless exposure of the social-patriots won themthe honour of being hated by the Berlin and Stockholm Greulichs,Pflügers, Schneebergers and Dürrs.Is it so difficult to realise that when the French chauvinistslaud the German Liebknecht, and when the Germanchauvinists laud the Englishman MacLean, they are behavinglike swindlers—using “internationalist” phrases in praiseof other people’s internationalism to cover up their ownnationalism? Is it so difficult to realise that Grimm is behavingin the very same manner when he pours abuse on thesocial-patriots of all countries except Switzerland, that hedoes this for the express purpose of covering up his desertionto the Swiss social-patriots?Grimm denounced the German social-patriot Ebert as a“Rausschmeisser in einem Bordell” for having stolen theVorwärts from the German workers, for ejecting Left wingersfrom the party while shouting about a split.But what is Grimm doing at home, in Switzerland, in companywith the dismal heroes of dismal January 7, 1917?Did he not steal from the Swiss workers the solemnlypromised special congress to discuss the fatherland defenceissue? And is he not preparing to expel Zimmerwaldistsfrom the party while shouting about a split?Let us not be childishly naïve, let us squarely face the truth!At the January 7 meeting, Grimm’s new friends and patrons,the social-patriots, joined him in protesting against a